Electrical harnesses or cable assemblies include electrical cables having ends of electrical conductors thereof electrically connected to electrical contacts of electrical connectors. The electrical connectors are electrically connected to respective electrical connectors of other cable assemblies or to printed circuit board connectors to interconnect electrical circuits. A variety of devices have been used to make these cable assemblies. A known device is disclosed in Japanese Publication No. 55-25712 which is directed to a manually-operated tool that presses electrical conductors of an electrical cable into a large number of termination sections of electrical contacts of an electrical connector. Such a cable and tool are shown in FIGS. 5-7B.
Cable 10 is of conventional construction and, as shown in cross section of FIG. 5, includes a large number of electrical conductors 13 contained within an insulated jacket 14. Each conductor 13 includes an electrical core 11 of solid wire or stranded wires surrounded by an insulation sheath 12.
FIG. 6A shows a conventional electrical connector 20 having a large number of electrical contacts 21 secured in a dielectric housing 20a in rows in accordance with prescribed spacing requirements. U-shaped termination sections 21a of each row of contacts 21 face outwardly at a rear section of housing 20a and have Y-shaped termination slots 21b, as shown in FIG. 6B, in leg sections of the U-shaped termination sections 21a with the upper parts of the Y-shaped slots 21b being a continuation of the opening in the bight section. Electrical conductors 13 are terminated in termination sections 21a by being pressed into Y-shaped slots 21b so that when conductors 13 are forced into the bottom narrowed sections of slots 21b, the opposing edges of these bottom narrowed sections will displace the insulation of the conductors 13 and electrically engage the conductive cores thereof thereby forming electrical connections between contacts 21 and conductors 13.
Tool 30 for mass terminating conductors 13 of cable 10 to the electrical contacts 21 of electrical connector 20 is shown in FIG. 7A. Tool 30 has a block member 30a which includes a retaining section 31 in which connector 20 is retained. Comb members 32 are pivotally mounted at one end to the block member 30a below the retaining section 31. Comb members 32 have elongated openings and aligned teeth along each side of the opening. The spaces between the teeth of comb members 32 receive the ends of conductors 13 and the spacing between these spaces corresponds to the spacing of contacts 21 of connector 20. The elongated openings in comb members 32 are in alignment with the termination sections 21a of contacts 21 when connector 20 is retained in retaining section 31. Arms 34 are pivotally mounted at inner ends to block member 30a and a conductor-stuffing and cutting block 33 is secured to each arm 34.
To operate tool 30, connector 20 is retained in retaining section 31 by retaining plates 31a on block member 30a. Conductors 13 are positioned in respective spaces between the teeth of comb members 32, after which comb members 32 are moved in the direction of arrows A initially positioning conductors 13 in alignment with respective terminating slots 21b of terminating sections 21a of contacts 21. Arms 34 then moved in the direction of arrows B causing conductor-stuffing and cutting blocks 33 to move into the elongated openings of comb members 32 with projections 33a, 33b, 33c at the front surfaces of comb members 32 forcing or pressing conductors 13 into terminating slots 21b of terminating sections 21a and simultaneously edges 33d of projections 33a and edges 31b of retaining plates 31a cut the conductors 13 thereby resulting in electrical connections of the conductors 13 to respective contacts 21.
The use of manual tools as described above to make cable assemblies results in high production costs and inferior manufacturing efficiency due to the large number of conductors having to be manually placed within the combs and to verify proper positioning therein. When production of the cable assemblies was increased, errors occurred when conductors were terminated to wrong contacts.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cable-making apparatus and method that overcomes the manually-operated tool thereby substantially upgrading the cable-manufacturing efficiency and reducing the wrongful placing of conductors in position for termination to the contacts.